There has been a verbal chess match going on between Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and today Erdogan got checkmated.
Yesterday, Erdogan said Turkey would not apologize for the downing of the Russian fighter as it had done nothing wrong:
"If the same violation occurs today, Turkey has to react the same way."
Yesterday, Erdogan said Turkey would not apologize for the downing of the Russian fighter as it had done nothing wrong:
"If the same violation occurs today, Turkey has to react the same way."
Demonstrably Turkey had not shot down other aircraft that had violated its airspace previously nor had Greece, a fellow NATO member, shot down Turkish aircraft for violating Greek airspace in the past. This opened Erdogan up to what "the same violation" would be.
Then Erdogan exposed his king with this statement:
"However, he told France 24 television: 'If we had known it was a Russian plane, maybe we would have warned it differently'".
"He went on: 'In advance, in accordance with our agreement with the US, we gave information on where our planes would be working - at what altitude, and in what areas. Turkey is part of that coalition and they had to know it was the Russian airforce working in that area.'"
Turkey did have to know and Turkey did know; they would never have risked shooting down a NATO aircraft.
"If it was an American aircraft, would they have struck?"
Then Erdogan exposed his king with this statement:
"However, he told France 24 television: 'If we had known it was a Russian plane, maybe we would have warned it differently'".
That entire sentence is in quotes because the modifier "however" is the BBC's. The BBC knows that with that statement Erdogan uncovered his king: allies do not shoot down allies and friends do not shoot down friends. Turkey did not shoot down other aircraft because those belonged to allied or friendly governments. Now Erdogan was saying that Russia fit into the friendly category and if he had known it was a friend violating Turkish airspace for 30 seconds he would not have shot it down. Erdogan was saying he didn't know that the fighter was Russian? If Erdogan did not know he would not have shot the fighter down. Putin pounced:
"But Mr Putin insisted it was "impossible" for Turkey not to have known it was shooting at a Russian plane. 'It's got insignia, and you can see that very clearly'.
"He went on: 'In advance, in accordance with our agreement with the US, we gave information on where our planes would be working - at what altitude, and in what areas. Turkey is part of that coalition and they had to know it was the Russian airforce working in that area.'"
Turkey did have to know and Turkey did know; they would never have risked shooting down a NATO aircraft.
"If it was an American aircraft, would they have struck?"
That was checkmate. Poor chess by Erdogan; well-played match by Putin.
